


I Can Take The Heat

by michellemagly



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Fic Exchange, Fluff, tahno reforms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 02:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11659728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michellemagly/pseuds/michellemagly
Summary: Tahno is a different man after losing his bending and regaining it at the hands of Avatar Korra. He's not a pro bender anymore, and he needs to find new work. And Korra's back in Republic City. And talking to him! But it's not like he likes her or anything, no.





	I Can Take The Heat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WriterSine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterSine/gifts).



Tahno walked down an alleyway with no destination in mind. His feet scuffed the ground with every step, sending a loose pebble clattering along the pavement. He kept his gaze turned downward, hands shoved in his pockets. It did not matter where he ended up, so long as he spent his time doing something,  _ anything _ , other than sitting around with his old teammates or his mom. They would just look at him and try to talk about something, anything other than what Amon had done.

That was the problem.

He raised a hand to his hair and smoothed the falling locks back into place.  _ It stay put better before Amon… _ It was hard not to think about him, especially when every non-bender on the streets liked to remind him of what had happened. They liked to remind Tahno of what a shit head he had been, and how much of a loser he was now.

He kicked another pebble. It went clattering, but not as far as he expected. Tahno looked up and saw three boys, two cornering the one other. They had rocks trained on the kid. Pebbles floated around them, flecks of stone quivering in the air as they struggled to maintain control.  _ Earthbenders fighting dirty, what a concept. _

Tahno did not intend to get involved, but the kid looked over at him. The kid, who’s blue eyes were straight from some water tribe village, asked him for help, all without saying anything. His eyes were wide, his mouth a tight line, and his back was to the wall, nowhere else to go. He understood the feeling. With a shrug, Tahno pulled his hands from his pockets.

He dove in like a hailstorm, a high kick smashing down on the rocks one of the kids were floating. As soon as his heel crushed the pebbles into dirt he swung his other foot forward and sent the rest of the rock flying. Both boys cried out and stumbled away from him. Tahno sneered down at them. “What are you brats doing?”

“Nothing that concerns you, old man,” one of them said. They looked like they came from the rougher side of town, so they could have been picking on the kid for any number of reasons. Maybe he had a little extra pocket change. Maybe they just liked his shirt better and figured they would have it instead. 

“Yeah, well it concerns me now. Get lost before I stomp you both to the curb, got it?” This felt better than taking a beating from every other person on the streets. He missed fighting. He missed feeling like he was capable of something.

“Whatever,” the other boy said. They both shot him a mean look and walked away.

Tahno turned to the other kid who was prying himself off the wall and straightening his clothes back into place. Already Tahno could see the tell-tale signs of bruises forming on his forearms, suggesting he knew how to block a punch. “You okay, kid?”

The boy sniffed and ran a hand across his face, smearing dirt around instead of wiping it away. “I’m fine.”

“What’d they corner you for?” Tahno took a knee.

The kid shrugged. “I froze their feet in a puddle last week.”

Tahno smirked. He remembered similar antics from his childhood, back when the streets of Republic City where a whole lot meaner. “You have to learn to fight when there’s no water available.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a thin vial.  _ I’ve got no use for it now, anyways _ . “Or at least learn to keep it on you at all times.”

The kid eyed the vial for a moment, probably remembering taking a shady deal from someone in the past. He was looking for the strings that came attached with it.

“Look, just think of this as a gift from one waterbender down on his luck to another.” Finally, the kid reached out and took the flask. He slipped it in the inside pocket of his shirt. “Now come on. That water will only do you good if you know some moves to go with it.”

The kid smiled at him and assumed the ready stance. Just as Tahno stood, the kid said, “Hey, didn’t you used to be in the Wolfbats?”

Tahno felt his grin slip and bit his lip in an effort to keep it from becoming an ugly scowl. He took a calming breath, smoothed back his hair, then flashed a grin again. “Yeah. That’s all water under the bridge, now.”

***

When Korra came back to Republic City, there was an official welcoming ceremony held for her arrival. Tahno went to it, if only to see how the Avatar was holding up after having her bending taken away. Would she have the same look he saw in the mirror every morning? Yes, she had gotten Amon, but it had cost her everything.

But Korra looked fine. She looked more than fine. She was all smiles, not the same radiant, annoying blast of sunshine she had been when she first graced Republic City with her holier-than-thou presence, but she stood tall and grinned and waved at people when they waved to her.

As she walked by where he stood their gazes locked, and for a moment her smile faltered. Tahno watched her pass by. She slowed down amidst the flow of the procession. It parted around her and continued on its way.

And then she broke eye contact and kept walking. Tahno sighed and watched her go. People made speeches. Korra was given the podium. Tahno tried to act like he wasn’t really listening. But Korra definitely caught his ear when she said, “I am glad to announce that I can mend those who were wronged by Amon.”

Around him, people shouted and surged forward like a dam breaking. Chief Beifong stood at the head of the crowd, raising her arms and yelling at all of them to back off and quiet down. Tahno’s breath caught in his chest.  _ She can fix it.  _ The thought pulsed in his mind.

When Korra started speaking about the details - the where, the when, the how - the audience fell silent. Tahno listened, but as soon as she gave the name of the hospital where she’d service people, he took off. He had an appointment to make.

***

When it was his turn to see Korra, Tahno stood on shaky legs and had to take a calming breath to steady himself.  _ Play it cool. She’s the Avatar. She won’t turn you away _ . But he still couldn’t shake the feeling in his stomach, it was like a stone displacing water, that she’d remember all the things he’d done and just shake her head at him. Either way, the nurse gestured down the hall, and he followed her all the way down to an open doorway. Inside stood Korra looking all sorts of out of place with her traditional Water Tribe garb on. Tahno tried to flash her a smile, but it probably looked pained. He couldn’t feel the same enduring confidence he used to know. Before Amon, he had no reason to ever doubt himself and Korra was the one bumbling around trying to find who she was. Now…

Well, there Korra stood. She placed her hands on her hips and smiled back that lopsided smile she usually reserved for people other than pro-bending rivals. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey.” Tahno took a step forward and offered her his hand. “You got him. Thanks.”

Korra nodded and took his hand in hers. He held it firmly, but they didn’t bother shaking. She let go sooner than her would have liked, but Tahno didn’t even know how long he would even want to hold it for. “It’s all part of being the Avatar.”

Tahno inclined his head and waited for her to say more, but she just stood there and stared up at him. “So, how does this work?” he finally asked.

“Go ahead and kneel. It’s really quick.”

Tahno took a knee in front of her and glanced up. She was looking down at him, her big blue eyes betraying nothing other than kindness. Korra before Amon had been filled with rage and an uncertainty that Tahno had reveled in poking at. “Like this?”

Korra nodded. “Hold still.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Korra laughed and he smiled. She lowered her hands to his forehead and pressed her fingertips to his skin. He waited to feel some kind of change, but there was only the warm touch of Korra’s fingers. She closed her eyes and frowned slightly, and then Tahno felt something. It was like a knot was untying in his back somewhere. Heated energy pooled through some newly opened pathway. He gasped as he felt it, whatever _ it  _ was that had been missing since Amon. He had forgotten what it was like to sense the water around him, but it flooded back all at once. He could feel the subtle rush of blood in his own veins, could sense where water lingered in the room around them. He knew the location of every bead of sweat, every drop of moisture if he concentrated enough, and feeling it all again was like opening his eyes.

Korra removed her hands. “Well?” she asked.

Tahno stood and looked around for some water. A cup sat on the nearby counter. He waved with his hand and brought a small stream between them. “Good as new,” he said, allowing the stream to twine through his fingers, dancing over knuckles. “You’re pretty alright as far as Avatars go, you know?”

Korra laughed again and the sound made his breath catch. “I’ll take that as a weighty compliment, coming from you. What are you going to do, now?”

Tahno let the water snake around his hand one more time and then returned it to the cup. “I don’t know. Cheating at pro-bending doesn’t have the same excitement as before, you follow?” Korra laughed a third time, and Tahno managed to pull off a genuine smile. “I’ll figure something out.” He would have to, since he was only as good as what he did with his bending, and before Amon he had been a waste of space.

***

_ Something _ came to Tahno sooner than he would have expected. A few days later, he walked down one of the main streets of the Water Tribe District. It was the right time to go get noodles, and maybe even pick up noodles for a certain Water Tribe girl he knew would appreciate them, who was still working late with the city to smooth things over between benders and non-benders.  _ But it’s only because she gave me my bending back _ .  _ Not because of her damn smile or anything sappy like that.  _ The streets flowed with the regular crowd, and it felt good to walk and just  _ feel _ the water around him.

The further he walked into the district, the less moisture he felt. The air cracked on his tongue like dry leaves, something that he had never experienced here, so close to the waterfront. People ran back and forth down the street, like the rush of water in a swelling stream, but Tahno couldn’t see where the storm was.

Then he smelled smoke. He  _ saw _ smoke, and he ran with all the other people making their way to the scene. He rounded a corner down an alley and felt a blast of hot air. An apartment building had become engulfed in flame, the column rising ever higher, moving faster than any natural fire would. Tahno looked around for water, and finding none immediately on hand, sprinted toward the inferno. He stopped short at the edge of the crowd. “Someone call the fire department!” a man shouted next to him.

Just outside the apartments, a woman knelt wailing as someone tried to pull her away. Tahno pushed past the crowd and ran over to them. “Hey lady, you’re going to burn up!” He knelt down and grabbed her arm, hauling her to her feet with the man’s help. The inferno roared in front of them, cooking them alive.

“My son is in there!” She tried to pull out of his grip. “Someone needs to get my son!”

“Alright, what floor is he on?” He had to yell over the crackling boom of the fire.

“Ground level! He got trapped in a room!”

The other man hauling her looked over at him. “You can’t go in there, kid. Wait for the firefighters to arrive.”

“Whatever’s feeding that fire is going to burn the whole place down before the professionals get here.” Tahno pushed him and the lady into the crowd. “Don’t worry about me. I know a thing or two about taking the heat.” Tahno glanced over to see a couple people hauling buckets toward the fire. As they made to pitch it onto the flame, he called the water over to him. “Thanks!” he yelled, sprinting toward the entrance.  _ I’m only as good as what I do with my bending _ .

He made the water a second skin. He willed it to be cool, to be ice. He jumped through the crumbling doorway like he’d jump onto the ring in a pro-bending match. All around him the water screamed to be let go, to turn into steam and float away, but Tahno kept it in place and ran deeper into the furnace.

_ Alright, kid, where are you? _ He tried to feel where any water might be left in the building, but it was hard to do when the fire boomed like thunder in his ears. He could feel beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. The ice threatened to give way.

He felt something, nothing bigger than a droplet, but it was there and it was in the back room. Tahno charged forward, jumped out of the way as a support beam crashed through the ceiling, ducked under melting wiring. He charged right into the room, crashing through crumbling wall, and some of his water finally vaporized away so that he could feel the searing heat branding his shoulders.

The same kid from the alley some days ago stood there, cocooned in a wavering shield of water, and Tahno would have laughed at the odds of it all if they weren’t in mortal peril. He ran forward and scooped the kid up, adding his water to the ice, folding him into the protective layer. The boy slumped against him as he ran, dead weight, like a boulder to the stomach in a fight. He’d survived those before, though. This was no different.

They crashed out the entrance and tumbled into the street. Tahno let go and the kid went sprawling. The water all evaporated away. He couldn’t cling to it any longer. He tried to take a deep breath, but all around him the air was choked with smoke, so he coughed his lungs up instead. There were hands on his shoulders. People were hauling him away. He looked around for the kid and saw someone scoop him up and carry him with.

Tahno slumped into the arms holding him up. He didn’t care what happened now. The whole building could collapse. It didn’t matter, because he had told that fire to go fuck itself. He had reached right into its belly and snatched up its lunch.  _ Suckerpunching an inferno iasn’t a bad way to end the evening. _

Someone in the crowd shouted, “It’s the Avatar!” and Tahno had to force himself to look around.

Korra sailed down from a nearby rooftop like some damn comic book hero. He watched as she ran up to the flames, raised one palm to the building and stretched the other out behind her, pointed out at the night sky.

Flames shot forth from her fingertips like a geyser of death, curling and lapping the air as they climbed higher and higher toward the stars. Onlookers “oohed” and “ahhed” but Tahno just smirked.

As she siphoned the heat out, the apartment fire shrank, collapsing in on itself until it had snuffed out completely, leaving nothing but a crumbling, blackened heap of twisted metal and charcoal. “Atta girl,” Tahno muttered.

He made himself stand on his own. He wanted to go congratulate Korra with some snarky line, maybe ask her to join him for some noodles, but a sobbing woman threw herself on him before he could move. “Thank you,” she wailed. “Oh thank you. You saved him.”

Tahno leaned back and raised his hands up. If his clothes weren’t already torn to shreds from the fire, he would have shoved her away, but a few tears and wrinkles were the least of this suit’s problems now. “Hey, it was nothing,” he said, then gently grabbed one of her wrists to pry away from his shirt.

“Oh, sorry!” She seemed to take the hint and let go of him. Tears crawled down her face, cutting paths through the soot. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

Tahno looked over at the kid. He was slumped over in someone’s arms. In his hands he clutched the same vial Tahno had given him. “I kind of did.”

Someone else thumped a hand on his shoulder, and Tahno was ready to recoil from whoever wanted to mess him up, but when he turned around he nearly ran face-first into some barrel-chested guy wearing a Republic City Firefighters uniform. “Hey kid.” He smiled from behind a bristly moustache, his face marred with small burn marks.

“Hey.” Tahno smoothed his hair back into place, preparing for whatever verbal assault this guy was probably going to levy against him.  _ Probably something about taking stupid risks. _

“I saw what you did there. You’re pretty talented.”

“I am? I mean, sure. Yeah.” Tahno tried to maintain eye contact. He was thrilled at a potential job offer, but the nagging thought of Korra leaving the scene kept pressing on his mind.

“Look, if you’re ever interested in trying out for the firefighters, come down to the fire department and we’ll run you through the course. Just tell them Yu Shin sent for you.”

Tahno nodded and smiled. “I’ll keep it in mind.” As soon as the man walked away, he looked around for Korra, but she was gone. “Damn.”

“Looking for someone?”

Tahno whipped around and there she stood, hand on her hip and wearing the same lopsided grin. “I was just going to ask if you needed some noodles after all that show-stopping glamour.”

“Oh, what. You don’t like being upstaged?”

There was a challenge in her voice, as if she was waiting to see if he’d take a cheap shot at her. Instead, Tahno smiled and offered her his arm, “Listen here, Avatar, the last time I upstaged you it ended very badly for me.”

Korra’s gaze flicked down to his arm, them back to his face, then back to his arm again. Finally, she looped her own arm through his, only slightly put off by his singed appearance. “Glad to see you’ve learned your lesson,” she teased.

“My mom always says It’s no good to fight a raging current.”

“Your mom sounds pretty smart.”

“She also says it’s better to let the current do the work for you, wash those other suckers downstream.” Tahno glanced down at her and grinned as Korra furrowed her brow. “She teaches martial waterbending down at the rec center, usually to five-year-olds.” They both laughed and Tahno led her through the crowd, and though his voice was as smooth as a lake surface, his insides felt all jumbled up again. And everything felt too hot, like the inside of those apartments. Tahno glanced down at his ruined clothes. “I just remembered I look like a complete disaster. Do you mind detouring to my place? I want to look presentable if I’m getting food with someone so prestigious.”

Korra arched an eyebrow. “Prestigious?”

Tahno shrugged. “I don’t put the words in other people’s mouths. I just listen. You should hear how my aforementioned mother goes on about you. Which I should warn you, you’re gonna meet her in a few minutes.”

“You live with your mother?”

“After what happened with Amon, it made sense.”

“Oh.”

They fell into silence for a few moments, then Tahno asked Korra about her family. He listened to her talk about growing up in the Southern Water Tribe (No, Tahno had never seen either of the poles; he came from a mixed heritage like most Republic City street rats). She talked about the festivals they celebrated back home. She talked about the differences in food between Republic City and the south. He was happy to let her talk up until they reached the small apartment complex he shared with his mom.

“So you live with just your mom?” Korra asked.

Tahno nodded as he fished for the complex key in his pocket. He found it, shoved it in the knob, and opened the door. “Dad left a while ago. You know how it is.” But she probably didn’t know how it was. Korra was all sunshine and supportive, loving relationships. If he was honest with himself, he had kind of resented her for it at first. 

He led her upstairs to the third floor and down the hall to his mother’s apartment. When he opened the door, he could hear the sound of the radio blaring the pro-bending fights. His mom yelled, “Come on!” when the announcer described a team member taking a bad hit. Only when he shut the door did she lower the radio volume. “Tahno, is that you?”

“Hey mom.” He stepped into the living room. His mother, a spindly colony woman that was a little bit of Fire Nation and Water Tribe, sat in her favorite chair with a glass of her favorite wine next to her. She caught one look at Tahno and her blue eyes shot wide open.

“By the spirits, kid, what happened to you?” She shut the radio off altogether and stood up. “And who’s this?” she asked.

“Korra, this is my mother, Talin. Mom, this is Korra.”

“You brought the Avatar into my house without any warning, first?” She turned to Korra and smiled. “Hi there. It’s such an unexpected pleasure to have you over.”

“It’s an unexpected pleasure to be here!”

His mom rounded on him again. “But you haven’t said a word about how you managed to ruin those clothes. What did you do, jump into a fire pit?”

“Kind of. There was a big fire, and some kid was stuck in the building. I ran in and got him out.”

“You did what?” Both Korra and his mom spoke that time.

Tahno glanced over at Korra. “You were there. How did you think I ruined this shirt?”

“Not by running all the way back into that building!”

Tahno shrugged. “Well you hog all the heroism to yourself, Avatar.” He winked and let go of her arm. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make myself presentable.”

As he walked toward his room, he heard his mom say, “My boy, a hero. I can’t believe it.”

“Neither can I,” Korra added.

Tahno swallowed the urge to say something insipid and stepped into his room, shutting the door with a soft click. He shucked his pants first, digging out a clean pair of slacks to slip into. He could still feel the sweat and grime from the fire, but he didn’t want to take too long. He tugged off his shirt and vest next and walked over to the vanity. His reflection showed he was covered in soot, and his shoulders bore angry red stripes. Tahno flicked his wrist toward a basin of water and pulled the water to his shoulders. He sighed as the healing balm settled onto his skin.

Someone knocked on his door. “What?” he asked, eyes closed as he concentrated.

The door opened. “Kid, you could have told me you needed help.” His mom came in and pressed her hands to the healing waters on his shoulders. She tsked as she surveyed the damage. “These are going to scar.”

Tahno sighed and glanced out the open door, down the hall. He caught Korra’s gaze and smiled. She looked away and he chuckled. “Apartment fires aren’t the same as what they throw at you in the ring.”

“I know.” She moved her hands down, probably getting to scarring that he hadn’t noticed.

Tahno thought about what the firefighter Yu Shin had told him. “The fire department offered me a job.”

The water settled on his skin a little more heavily. The soothing balm prickled like ice for a moment. “Getting paid to get into slugging matches wasn’t dangerous enough?”

“I don’t know, mom. That career ended in a terrorist attack.” He still thought about that night. He remembered Amon’s grip on his face, the jeering shouts from people he would have stepped on without a second thought before. He remembered non-benders laughing at him and spitting at his feet, telling him that Amon had given him what he had coming. He remembered with such perfect clarity, and every time he couldn’t shake the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach that what happened to him was somehow entirely his own fault.

***

_ The guy shoved him, but unlike the rest he didn’t just keep walking. He stopped and made eye contact with Tahno. “What are you looking at?” he growled. Stubble covered his face. He looked old, haggard, and he smelled like beer and the docks. Probably worked the slime line in one of the canneries, if Tahno had to guess. _

_ “Nothing,” he muttered, but when he tried to keep walking the guy put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. _

_ “Hey, I know you.” _

_ Tahno kept his gaze directed toward the ground. “I’m sure you do.” _

_ “Yeah, you’re that Wolfbat guy who lost his bending.” _

_ Tahno nodded. “Yeah, that’s me.” He tried to step around the guy again but he just shoved him back into place, harder. Tahno looked around for any law enforcement officials, but couldn’t find any. The poor parts of the Water Tribe District rarely saw patrols. _

_ “You and your asshole teammates bent a pile of fish guts into my face one time, you know that?” _

_ With a swallow, Tahno eased his hands into his pants pockets and prepared for what he knew was coming. No one would step in to stop the guy. “That sounds like it was a shit thing of me to do.” _

_ “Yeah, you know why you did it?” _

_ Tahno tried to think back, but there were so many incidents. If he had to guess, the guy had probably dropped a fish on his shoe or something. It would have been an accident, a dumb accident that Tahno had turned into a spectacle. “Cause I’m a piece of shit,” he said. _

_ A fist connected with his jaw with a loud ‘crack!’ and Tahno saw stars. _

_ “Oof!” He stumbled backwards and clutched his jaw. A kick landed on his shin and he stumbled forward, sprawling into the street. He lay there, waiting for more, but the guy laughed and walked away. Tahno still lay in the street for a minute, his head pounding from the punch to his jaw. When the throbbing eased, he stood up and looked around. A couple people watched him, but no one looked all that concerned about what had just happened. Tahno shoved his hands back into his pockets and kept walking.  _

***

“You’re tense, hon.” Talin’s hands gripped his shoulders.

Tahno exhaled and forced his shoulders to droop. He plastered his familiar cool smile on his face and nodded toward the doorway. “Just nervous about my date standing out in the hall.”

“Who said this was a date?” Korra called. She still stood with her back to them like some old-fashioned Water Tribe prude. Suddenly, his smile felt a little more genuine.

“You did when I caught you looking, Avatar.” To his great pleasure, Korra’s shoulders bunched up and she turned around to glare at him.

“You-” But she caught sight of him still standing there, shirtless, and immediately turned away.

Tahno laughed so hard his shoulders shook, stretching the newly-formed scar tissue so that it hurt.

Talin took her hands off him and whisked the water back to its basin. “I think that’s the best anyone can do for now.”

Tahno turned around and gave her a brief hug. “Thanks, mom.”

Before he could pull away, she tightened her grip on him. “I’m proud of you, you asshole.” She loosened her grip and looked up at him. “Just don’t die while you’re pulling kids out of fires, alright?”

“I’ve gotta pass the interview, first.”

She let go of him. “We all know you’ll do that.” Talin left and shut the door behind her. Tahno groaned and pressed a hand to his face. He turned back and caught his reflection in the mirror. He still wore a stupid grin on his face, not at all like the sliver of a smirk he was used to taunting people with.

“What is she doing to me?” Tahno turned away from the mirror and dug a shirt, vest, and tie out of his dresser. He slipped the shirt and vest on, buttoning them up before tucking the shirt into his pants. He did up the tie watching his reflection in the mirror, pulling it snug to the collar before slipping it inside his vest. With a swirl of his fingers, Tahno fixed his hair back into it’s perfect shape. He gave himself one more pat-down to make sure his clothes were in place, then opened his bedroom door and walked out to greet Korra.

She turned and met his gaze when he shut the door, and even though Tahno had just spent all their time prettying himself, he got the sense that he was the one left there standing breathless, staring and thinking he was a damn moron for ever being cruel to her.

“You ready?” Korra asked.

Tahno had to work to nod and offer his arm. “If you haven’t found it already, allow me to show you where to find the best noodles in the Water Tribe District.”

“We’ll see. I might need to compare notes with you.”

“I’m going out, mom!” Tahno called into the living room. Talin said goodbye to them and they left.

***

When Talin asked him how the date had gone, Tahno only smiled and said, “Nice.” Which it was. He and Korra had spent most of their time talking. The food was just something to play with while they got to know each other a little better. When it was all over and the restaurant staff started giving them dirty looks, they had walked outside together and both glanced awkwardly in opposite directions.

“I gotta-” Korra had gestured awkwardly behind herself.

“Yeah, and I-” Tahno pointed back toward his apartment block.

“But this was fun, and we should-”

“Definitely, I mean-”

They both laughed, and Tahno shoved his hands in his vest pockets, looking down at the pavement. The neon street signs bathed everything in a deep blue light, hiding the burn marks on his nice black shoes. He looked back up and Korra still stood there, looking like some underwater spirit in the flourescent lighting. “Thanks for going out with me. I-” Words caught in his throat. He remembered the insults people had shouted at him. “I know I’m not a good person.”

Korra arched a brow and placed her hands on her hips. “What are you talking about? Are you still beating yourself up for cheating in the tournament?”

Tahno shrugged. He could hear the jeering boos and could feel the threatening shoves, could see the sidelong looks that promised trouble. He brought his hand up and massaged the same spot where the guy had punched him. Those people were just paying him back for every courtesy he had afforded them as a bender. “I was really rotten before, and not just to you.”

“We’re teenagers, Tahno. Isn’t that what we do?” When he didn’t respond, Korra stepped toward him. He felt her fingers on his hand, pulling it away from his face so she could cup his cheek. “You’re gonna have to forgive yourself eventually.” She then reached up on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek in such a soft kiss it might as well have been a snowflake landing on his skin. Then she pulled away, smiled up at him with that same lopsided grin, and released a small laugh before waving and turning away. “I’ll see you around, Tahno.”

So yes, the date had been “Nice,” and his mom didn’t need to know anything else about it.

It was so nice that the next day he managed to work up the courage to walk down to the fire department and head right on inside the main office. Yu Shin leaned against a desk, talking with other firefighters. He took one look at Tahno and smiled. “Hey, it’s the hero!” He pushed off the desk and came over and clapped him on the shoulder. “Glad to see you came by, though I’ve got to warn you, you’re going to burn through all those pretty shirts if you decide you want in.”

Tahno glanced down at his nice button-up. “I figure I’ll buy a new wardrobe when you hire me.”

“Yeah? Well, come on, kid. We’ll give you a tour of the place before throwing you at the course.”

***

When Tahno came home with a firefighter uniform slung over his shoulder and soot covering his face, his mom smiled, pinched his cheeks, and blinked back the tears crowding her eyes. She sniffed. “You sure about this, kid?”

“I can’t live off your good graces forever, mom.”

She laughed and smoothed a hand over his hair. “Yeah, well. I could’ve hoped for as much.”

“I’ll be safe, okay?”

Talin patted him on the cheek. “Yeah right.”

Work started quickly for Tahno. He didn’t expect another big fire to crop up so quickly, but within two days someone reported a fire in another apartment complex and the whole team was called out. He hopped onto the fire truck and held on for his life as the driver, an earthbender girl with shoulders practically cut from marble, let the engine cut loose. The truck screamed down alleys, taking wide turns that almost chucked him from his perch on top of the ladder. When he looked around, the rest of the team clung on easily, like moss to stone in a river. Tahno tried to mimic the feeling, but he still had to keep a white-knuckled grip just to avoid flying away.

The firebender sitting next to him, a lady named Li, laughed and knocked his visor down. “Don’t worry, kid!” she yelled over the roaring wind. “You get used to it!”

When the arrived on the scene, the blaze already ate furiously at the building. The firebenders on the team ran forward and began trying to siphon the heat off, but a technique like that on a fire this big took serious skill. It took Avatar Korra level skill.

“Hey, kid. Help the other waterbenders douse this!” Yu Shin shouted.

Tahno snapped out of his thoughts and raced over to help the other waterbenders. While they worked, a crowd started to form. Tahno raised sheets of ice only to have them shatter and be blown apart by the heat. He waited for the earthbenders to dump dirt on an area and then would help slosh the water over the smothered flames, willing the muddy swill to keep cool. By the end of it all, Tahno could barely raise his arms he was so tired from bending. Korra made putting fires out easy, but this one had fought them for every inch.

When they were done the apartment building looked more like a heaping twist of metal and ash. There was nothing left to salvage, and Yu Shin was cursing up a storm under his breath. “Something wrong, sir?” Tahno asked. He ran a hand through his hair to smooth it back into place, but the air was so dried that it just flopped back to wherever it wanted.

“It’s arson. Gang related, if I had to guess. There aren’t going to be any apartments left in the Water Tribe District if this keeps up.” He grumbled all the way to the radio where he contacted the police.

He waited with a furrowed brow, chewing on the ends of his bushy moustache until Chief Beifong squacked from the other end, “What is it, Yu Shin?”

“I’ve got another incident over in WTD.”

Tahno would have kept listening, but the other firefighters converged on him, hugging him, messing up his hair, all stuff Tahno usually hated, but this time it felt good. For once he had done something that mattered with his bending. And there wasn’t a single person person booing him in the crowd of onlookers. Some were even applauding. It was like being back in the ring again, only better.

“Good job, rookie. Know what you’re going to do celebrate?” Li asked.

Tahno sighed and looked around the crowd of people. He had hoped Korra might appear again like at the last fire, but she was nowhere to be seen. “I guess I should go celebrate.”

A reported shoved his way through the crowd, holding a camera high. “Hey there, everyone! Mind a quick picture for the paper?”

“Hey, why not!” Yu Shin walked up behind them and shoved his team into place with a big sweep of his arms. “Smile, everyone!”

The camera flashed, and it was perhaps the first time Tahno didn’t really care one way or another that the newspaper had wanted his picture. The photographer took their names then shoved his way back through the crowd. The team passed around an extra round of congratulations, then scattered to finish up their work.

Tahno looked around, unsure of where to go. He thought about wandering over to one of the firefighters and asking for help, but someone called out to him, “Hey, wolfbat!” A kid wormed his way through the crowd, the same Water Tribe kid from the alley and the fire that had started everything. “Wolfbat!” he yelled again, running up to Tahno.

“Hey yourself,” he said, stepping away from his team so he could kneel down to eye-level. “What are you doing playing around fires again?”

“The whole district heard you guys were fighting it.” He shuffled his feet. “I wanted to see if you were here.”

“Don’t you have school or something?” Not that Tahno cared. He had barely attended school when he was a kid. School was for suckers back then.

The boy shrugged. “Look. Thanks for saving me. I made you this.” He held out his hand, something big and lumpy clutched in it. Tahno opened up his palm. The kid dropped a roughly carved figurine into his hand. Tahno closed his fingers around it and looked over the carving. It was halfway decent, he could even make out the shape of wings, four legs, a snout… “It’s a wolfbat,” the kid clarified.

Tahno smiled. “I can tell.” He raised the figurine up between them. “This is great, really. The name’s Tahno, by the way.” He held out his free hand.

The kid smiled back and took his hand in a firm handshake. “I’m Selok.”

“Nice to officially meet you.” Tahno let go of the kid’s hand and stood back up. “Now get back to school, or wherever it is you’re supposed to be.”

The kid, Selok, groaned and rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He trotted away and Tahno turned back to the team.

Most of them had wandered back to the truck, but standing with Yu Shin and two police officers, and looking right at him with that damn smile, was Korra. Tahno resisted the urge to smooth over his fireman’s uniform and instead offered her a mock salute.

Korra walked over to him. “You’ve already got a fan,” she said.

“I’ve always been a crowd-pleaser.” They hadn’t seen each other since she had kissed him on the cheek and walked away into the night. But already his heart hammered like that had only happened a moment ago.

Korra nodded and looked him over. “Well, you are pretty easy on the eyes.”

Tahno laughed. “Tell me, Avatar, does this uniform look better than the pro-bending one?”

Korra cocked her head to the side and took a few steps closer to him. She places a hand on his shoulder and ran it down the side of his arm. “I don’t know if it’s the uniform that’s cleaned you up or your act, but it definitely suits you.”

Someone from the fire department wolf-whistled at them and Tahno called out, “Hey, shut up,” before turning his attention back to Korra. “What can I say, I’m a new man.”

Korra smiled up at him. She stood closer. Her hand crawled its way back up his shoulder, up his neck, cupped his cheek. She leaned in close like she might kiss him on the cheek again. But she was aiming elsewhere, and before he could fully react her lips were on his. Tahno released a small grunt of surprise, then wrapped his arms around Korra’s middle and tugged her close, kissing her like she was the only woman in the world. And she might as well have been, because she was the person who gave him back his world.


End file.
